Well its time for another car again! I have covered over 10000 miles in my Vectra Cd and decided to go small again. My Vectra has done me proud but rather liked the fuel and due to the change in jobs I would no longer need such a big and luxurious car. Having been around the dealers I decided to go for a Fiesta… yes I can almost see you grinning but have previously owned 2 1987 Fiestas I decided that my choice could not be better.

Well if you have never heard of the Ford Fiesta you should be ashamed of yourself. They have been around since the 70’s and millions upon millions have lived and died. The Fiesta was produced to rival such cars as the Austin Metro and Renault 4. A Fiesta is a small car mainly designed for city transport and in no way is it designed to be a motorway cruiser. In my opinion the Fiesta is a good-looking car and is a brilliant run about.

I think I will start off with one of the cars praises. Brand new the basic model will set you around £6000 but with the all new Fiesta coming very shortly you may be able to knock a little off that. I paid £3,495 at an auction for my W registered Fiesta Encore 1.3. I got my Fiesta at such a cheap price because A) It had 63,000 miles and B) because it needed a good valet and the cabin was very dirty and C) it was involved in a accident with a human so it needed a headlamp, bumper, and the wing and bonnet were dented. After these minor repairs were carried out (after spending £450) I had myself a lovely car worth in the region of £5000! A good Fiesta with FSH and in Mint condition on a W plate will set you back around £5.5k with a few extras.

The cabin in the Fiesta is quite dull with nothing to make it stand out from the crowd. Interior loos quite plasticy but most of the switches and controls are made well so I am assured build quality is to a high standard. The rear space is poor especially when compared with some of its rivals e.g. Skoda Fabia. I like the seats in my Fiesta as they help to giver the car an airy feel, as they are white/crème to match the cars exterior. All the switches are well laid out and are easy to use as there are no fancy features here.

I just received one of the standard stereos from Ford, which was the Ford 4000. 2 speakers producing approximately 40watts power the system. The system has the standard cassette and radio, which produces good sound on either. I find the radio especially easy to use, as the buttons are large, so you don’t have to take your eyes off the road! The radio search is to a high standard and very impressive compared to my £16,000 Vectra CD. 40 watts may sound very little but it produces excellent sound quality for one of the lower range radios and goes quite a volume too!

Steering.

Brakes.

Performance.

Looks.

· 1.2 75 BHP engine featured in the Zetec and Ghia. The 1.2 gives surprising performance results for such a small engine. It still gives 41.5 mpg and as far as performance goes its fairly nippy reaching 60mph from a standstill in 11.9 seconds and then be able to go on till past the 105mph mark. The 1.2 Zetec engine is one of the newer engines and it feels it.

1.6i Zetec.

As Metallic paint is not standard you only get the choice of 3 non-metallic colours:

Fords Diamond white is not as Diamond as it sounds. I don’t know whether the paintwork on mine has dis coloured but it’s more of a crème colour than Diamond White. White does look smart on the Fiesta but there’s 1 drawback with white cars… You have guessed it. The slightest bit of dirt and it stands out like a soar thumb.

Dark true blue is a nice shade or dark blue but if anything I would have named it Royal Blue. I would not have choose the Blue for the same reason as the Red… Boring!!!. Most will say that the White is boring but there’s something about the white that caught my eye.

If you decide to go for the Ghia you may have Leather seats or at least a wider variety of interior trims. On the whole none of the trims look cheap but the Ghia is in a class of its own!